Mizrahi Women’s Struggle for Equality

Boston Workmen's Circle, 1762 Beacon St., Brookline

Smadar Lavie is the author of Wrapped in the Flag of Israel. An outspoken scholar and activist for gender equity and social justice for both Israelis and Palestinians, she co-founded Ahoti (=Sistah), Israel’s feminists of color movement. Her book discusses the difficulties of Mizrahi feminist resistance, given the entanglements with and dependency of Mizrahi women on Ashkenazi Zionism. She is a scholar in residence at the Beatrice Bain Research Group, UC Berkeley, and a visiting professor at the Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century, University College Cork. In 2013 she won the “Heart at East” Honor Plaque for lifetime service to Mizrahi communities in Israel-Palestine.

Part of the series Through a Different Lens: Women's Perspectives on Israel-Palestine, presented by the Middle East Working Group at Boston Workmen's Circle.

from our members

“There are a lot of organizations doing political organizing, but I think we’re working on something different here in terms of talking about it as a community. It really struck home for me when we had the Shabbat dinner for gay and lesbian marriage.”